Chapter 14
Julian didn’t sleep that night.
He lay in bed staring at the ceiling, Katherine’s eyes burned into his memory—not with anger or longing, but with a quiet calm that gutted him.
She had truly moved on.
And he was still stuck in the same place—wealthy, powerful, and utterly alone.
He got up before dawn and sat in his home office, flipping through an old drawer he hadn’t touched in years. Inside were tiny pieces of the life he shared with her—photos, receipts from cafés she used to love, the hand-scribbled note she once left on his desk that read “Don’t forget lunch today. You’ll work better if you eat.”
He had thrown it in the drawer without reading it properly back then. Now he stared at it like it was a letter from someone long gone.
There had been love, hadn’t there?
Maybe not loud or perfect, but something real.
He just hadn’t seen it until it was already ash and dust.
By morning, Julian walked into his office at Nash Group and handed Cayson a list.
“Find me every project Katherine Clarke has touched in the last year. I want the details.”
Cayson blinked. “All of them?”
“All of them.”
He wasn’t sure what he was trying to prove—if it was respect, curiosity, or just a desperate attempt to stay tethered to her in any way. But he needed to know.
And the more he read, the deeper his regret grew.
Every project was smart. Strategic. Clean. The kind of work he would’ve killed to have at Nash Group. She had always been capable—he had just never let her shine. He’d buried her under cold routines and distance, assuming she’d always be there.
But she wasn’t anymore.
And while she was rising, Nash Group was sliding.
Whispers had started among investors about the company’s future. About whether Julian had lost his edge. About whether the heart of Nash Group had left along with her.
One of the board members even said it out loud during a meeting:
“Julian, maybe it’s time we stop pretending Katherine Clarke was just your wife. She was the brain behind more than a few of our biggest wins. We let her walk out the door.”
Julian didn’t argue.
Because they were right.
Later that day, he stood at the window of his office, watching the city below, Katherine’s name still lingering in every headline, every whisper.
She wasn’t haunting him.
She was eclipsing him.
And maybe—just maybe—that was exactly what she was meant to do.